you resource for all things shoegaze & dream pop.

28 February 2018

When The Sun Hits is thrilled to premiere the charming new video/single by
Hungarian dream punk 4-piece Zombie Girlfriend. The featured song,
“Don’t Fall in Love”, is the second single taken from the band’s forthcoming Wind
LP, which will be out later this spring. You can stream and buy the lead single (also the title track), "Wind", on the group’s Bandcamp page.

“Don’t Fall
in Love” is an adrenaline-fueled burst of reverb and fuzz, both psychedelia-tinged
and exuberant. With this new single, Zombie Girlfriend deftly merges a garage pop
aesthetic with honeyed melodies and catchy lyrics, resulting in high-caliber dream
pop.

The video for "Don't Fall in Love" was shot by Zita Csordás during
the band’s Long Weekend Tour in February 2018.

14 February 2018

Russian-based four-piece Shoe Shine Six hit our
radar in January upon the release of their debut EP, Sunday. The EP
features a handful of heavy, gorgeous tracks that would be impressive for a
seasoned band, and they are even more so as a debut collection of tunes. If
this is what SSS has for us coming out of the gate, we expect grand things from
this project.

Shoe Shine Six is Katarina Voronina (vocals), Paul
Alimpiev (guitar), Mike Tulubaev (bass) and Serge Markoff (drums). We highly
recommend that you check out Shoe Shine Six’s Sunday EP, and do enjoy the following interview with the band’s
founding members, Mike and Paul.

How
and when was the band formed?

M: As a 4-piece collective we began to work during
the spring of 2017, but to be honest, everything began at the end of 2015, when
I met Paul. We found out that we have same music interests and decided to help
each other to compose and modify the tracks. Eventually, somewhere near the end
of 2016, we got the idea to search for other band members for live sets. It was
hard, but finally we found a corresponding drummer, who brought the vocalist
with him into the band. As I noted, it was in the spring of 2017. Then the hard
work began, which led to our debut EP Sunday.

Can
you tell us what the band has been working on and what you've got forthcoming
in the near future (any new releases, tour, etc.)?

P: At the current moment we are working on new
tracks, playing them at some local bars, concert halls, etc. Somewhere near the
autumn we plan to release the new album.

M: What about tour… Well, we are thinking about it,
it exists as a plan. Hopefully it could be at the earliest in spring – just a small
set of cities in our country. We are open to any offers :)

Do
you consider your music to be part of the current shoegaze/dream pop scene, or
any scene? Defining one's sound by genre can be tiresome, but do you feel that
the band identifies closely with any genre? How do you feel about genres in
music, in a general sense?

M: In my opinion, we belong with the current
shoegaze scene, but on the other hand, we do not play canonical shoegaze or
dream pop. There’s a Sonic Youth influence and others, as well. We play kind of
heavy shoegaze. Therefore, I don’t think we don’t belong to single genre.

P: We are playing the music we want to play. Genre
division is required, of course, for the listener. The listener wants to know
what kind of music to expect from a band. Generally, a band isn’t interesting
unless they introduce something new based on theirs views and tastes.

Citrus Clouds is a Phoenix-based project
consisting of Erick Pineda, Stacie Huttleston and Angelica Pedrego. They hit
the scene with their hazy brand of melodic dream pop back in 2015 with the
release of In Time I Am.
Since then they’ve presented two other excellent offerings – 2016’s Imagination
and 2017’s ULTRA SOUND.
Fresh off a recent tour, Citrus Clouds is now preparing for the release of a
handful of new singles in 2018, with a forthcoming full length planned for
2019. Looking forward to all of it! Enjoy getting to know the band in the
following interview.

How
and when was the band formed?

Citrus Clouds formed in mid-2015 as a side project
and we had no real intentions of playing out much. We didn't have any
expectations really. We would practice a ton and tried to write the best songs
we could. It was purely for fun and for us.

Can
you tell us what the band has been working on and what you've got forthcoming
in the near future (any new releases, tour, etc.)?

We've released our new EP ULTRA
SOUND on Custom Made Music last September. We are working on releasing
a few singles in 2018 and want to finish writing our 2nd full length, set to
release in 2019 under the name Nothing
Familiar. We want to explore different sounds and textures and are really
excited about the new songs.

Do
you consider your music to be part of the current shoegaze/dream pop scene, or
any scene? Defining one's sound by genre can be tiresome, but do you feel that
the band identifies closely with any genre? How do you feel about genres in
music, in a general sense?

I feel our sound definitely fits and has a place
in the current shoegaze/dream pop scene. Our sound tends to be less reliant on
guitar pedals and more on melodies and feelings. We call what we do Desertgaze
because here in Phoenix, it gets really, really hot and depressing half of the
year and although we make dreamy sounds, they tend to be a little more
minimalist and dryer than a lot of current shoegaze stuff. Phoenix is
definitely not England weather wise and that is reflected in the music we make.
Really though, a genre can only give you a rough outline as to what kind of
music a band makes.

02 February 2018

I have a late breaking relationship with this fantastic psych by way of baroque
dream pop band. I come up with these descriptions merely to guide the reader
and potential listener to expect simply magical music. Because the way vocalist
Allison Brice emotes around guitarist Hewson Chen’s and drummer Matthew
Schulz’s complex and ornate arrangements is singular and fantastic. They sound
like no one else on the planet but themselves. Yes, certainly there are
signposts in their music that may provide a few hints, such as the band Love,
or even Fairport Convention or The Left Banke. And really, it doesn’t matter
what you think informs their work, you should enjoy it for the delectable sonic
feast that it is. So onward to some questions for the band, who have a new
album Birds of America coming out on
February 16th.

Did
you folks really meet on Facebook? Do tell.

AB: Hewson and I first virtually bumped into each
other back in the MySpace days. I'm pretty sure that we were switched on to
each other's music via Greg Hughes from Still Corners. Greg and I were fellow
south Londoners at the time. Sadly, Hewson and I didn't keep in touch after
MySpace folded, but in early 2015 found ourselves reunited via our mutual
friend Phil Sutton from Pale Lights. On a silly Facebook thread he started
about frozen food of all things…

HC: The interwebs brought Matt and I together too.
I looked him up to hear what he sounded like and one of the first hits on
YouTube was a cat car chase video: Holy Fuck's "Red Lights". I
pretty much knew we would work great from there. I have cats in common
with Matt, and TV dinners in common with Allison.

AB: I'm severely allergic to cats and have never
been able to set foot in either Hewson or Matt's apartments!

You
all have played or currently play in other bands (New Lines, The Silver
Abduction). How do you find the time, and is this on top of regular day jobs?

AB: It's a challenge. We all have day jobs and are
raising - or soon to be raising - young children. I think that when free time is
in short supply, you just have to grab what you can get - focus, and get down
to work.

MS: You have to choose between sleep and art. I
still choose art.

HC: Time is a tough factor for sure, but the
technology helps - like you can sketch in broad strokes with plug-ins before
actually hooking up the Farfisa, or what have you...